In Situ / Aidlin Darling Design

In Situ / Aidlin Darling Design - Image 2 of 13In Situ / Aidlin Darling Design - Interior Photography, Kitchen, TableIn Situ / Aidlin Darling Design - Interior Photography, KitchenIn Situ / Aidlin Darling Design - Interior Photography, Table, ChairIn Situ / Aidlin Darling Design - More Images+ 8

San Francisco, United States
  • Architects In Charge: Joshua Aidlin, David Darling, Adam Rouse
  • Branding, Graphics & Environmental Graphics: a l m project
  • Kitchen Design: Harrison & Koellner LLC
  • Wood Ceiling: Acosta and Sons Inc.
  • Wood Supplier And Custom Lounge Table Fabricator: Arborica, Evan Shively
  • Custom Table Fabricator: Northwood Design Partners
  • Custom Pendant Lighting: Boyd Lighting
  • Custom Server Credenza: Concreteworks
  • Commissioned Artwork: Rosana Castrillo Diaz, Rosana Castrillo Diaz : Break This Heart, 2016 (mural in lounge area)
  • City: San Francisco
  • Country: United States
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In Situ / Aidlin Darling Design - Interior Photography, Table, Chair
© Matthew Millman

Text description provided by the architects. In Situ represents a unique and rich intersection of art, design, and food, each augmenting the other to reimagine museum dining, and our relationships with food. In support of Chef Corey Lee’s vision and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art’s greater mission, the design emphasizes visibility from the street, open accessibility to visitors and a sense of the ephemeral within a simple, comfortable environment.

In Situ / Aidlin Darling Design - Image 7 of 13
© Matthew Millman
In Situ / Aidlin Darling Design - Image 13 of 13
Floor Plan
In Situ / Aidlin Darling Design - Interior Photography, Kitchen, Table, Beam
© Matthew Millman

Inhabiting street-front space in the existing shell of the Mario Botta-designed portion of the recently reopened SFMoMA, the interior volume of the previous museum café was excavated, and left partially raw and exposed. Inserted in to this excavation is an interplay of floating white art walls, carefully placed to bracket space within the larger expanse of the restaurant. Strategically placed steel apertures and felt acoustic panels calibrate the zones of passage, both visual and physical, between the street and the restaurant, as well as the restaurant and the existing museum’s atrium. Together with the raw shell, these layers create a backdrop for discreetly placed “artifacts”, analogous to ingredients in their various states of refinement, strategically employed to engage the guest’s physical experience. All were inspired thru a collaborative process with the intent of drawing contrast between the rough and the refined: custom designed lighting, custom furniture and a sculptural wood ceiling. 

In Situ / Aidlin Darling Design - Interior Photography
© Matthew Millman

Approaching the restaurant off the street, a new steel window box and wooden door are incised on to the existing fabric of the storefront. Additional steel portals are inserted through the existing skin of museums wood paneled atrium; affording views from the atrium in to the restaurant, and vice versa. Once inside, an informal standing and sitting lounge area is envisioned as a shared living room for the street and museum. Toward the back of the restaurant, a quiet formal dining experience is supported by a more intimately scaled and acoustically muted space. An ephemeral full wall mural by Rosana Castrillo Diaz was commissioned for the energy of the front lounge area, while an aggregation of gold framed illustrations by Tucker Nichols was commissioned for subtle rigor of the dining area, tasked with drawing the eye from the street through the restaurant. The final art wall sets up a neutral canvas for a linear constellation of diners perched along a minimal banquette, making the patrons, and ultimately the food they are presented with, as the final ever changing daily art commission.   

In Situ / Aidlin Darling Design - Interior Photography, Dining room, Table, Chair, Lighting
© Matthew Millman

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Project location

Address:San Francisco, CA, USA

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Location to be used only as a reference. It could indicate city/country but not exact address.
About this office
Cite: "In Situ / Aidlin Darling Design" 02 Sep 2017. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/867639/in-situ-aidlin-darling-design> ISSN 0719-8884

© Matthew Millman

旧金山博物馆餐吧:红砖旁的精致木艺 In Situ / Aidlin Darling Design

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